Dr Rao inaugurates seminar on castor, sunflower oilseeds

Palanpur, May 10 (UNI) Eminent agro scientist and pioneer of green revolution in India Padmashri Dr M V Rao today inaugurated a three-day national meet of the agro research scientists and teachers on castor and sunflower oilseeds at Sardar Krushinagar Dantiwada University (SDAU) here.

Addressing the seminar, Dr Rao, former special Director General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), said ''Almost three-fourth of the total area is confined to rain farming by small and marginal farmers. The oil scenario is greatly influenced by market forces and conflicting interest. Despite impressive progress in vegetable oil sector, the imports during the last couple of years has been constantly rising.'' ''During the last two years, import bill has been oscillating between Rs 11,000 to Rs 13,000 crores even with bumper oilseeds production of 27.5 million tones in the country last year. India had to import 54.30 lakh tones of vegetable oil costing more than Rs 12,000 crores to the exchequer,'' he said.

''We are leader in the castor production contributing about 70 per cent of world production, about 54 per cent of the area and 130 per cent of the productivity of the land,'' Mr Rao said.

''Gujarat has maximum area under cultivation and maximum productivity in the country and the castor has variety of uses, besides lubricating oils, chemicals and drugs. Castor cake has immense potential as animal feed because of its well balanced amino acid profile. The uses of castor are unlimited,'' he said.

Mr Rao suggested that vitality of castor should be properly exploited so as to earn larger foreign exchange for the country.

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